Richmond's 1st Food Policy Council

On Tuesday November 8th, 2011 at 6:00 pm Richmond's first Food Policy Council met in the Richmond City Manager's conference room on
the 3rd floor of City Hall.

Twenty-two people interested in improving Richmond's Food System came together to begin to form our 1st Food Policy Council. In order to understand the scope of Richmond's food crisis, we began the meeting with introductions, including each participant's top food-related issue facing Richmond.

After creating a hefty list of food issues, we formed breakout groups where each group explored one part of Richmond's Food System: 1) production 2) distribution / raw foods) 3) distribution / prepared foods 4) alternative distribution and emergency food access points. The objective was to list from our collective experience all of the ways Richmond residents could access food, creating a draft base map of Richmond's Food System as it exists today. Hopefully over the next few months this map will develop into well researched tool that incorporates existing data collection efforts and can be used to inform policy initiatives that come out of the Council.

Help us create a thriving Food System in Richmond!Join us for our next Food Policy Council meeting:

Monday, December 5th, 2011 @ 6pmLocation TBA

We will kick off our next meeting by gathering together as much information as possible about existing food and food system related data collection projects focusing on Richmond, CA. There are so many groups who have already begun the work we are setting ourselves up to complete. Neighborhood House, H.E.A.L. and Richmond High food desert mapping projects of 23rd Street, DeAnza High school lunch nutrition assessment projects and the City's Urban Agriculture Assessment and Grocery Gap report are just a few examples (see Resources page for copies of these documents). What other data collection projects should we all know about as we move forward to form this Council?

Following this group brainstorm, the Council will host a panel of representatives from the Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco Food Policy Councils. Together we will discuss how each Council is organized and have a significant Q & A period.

There is so much to improve with our Food System here in Richmond. Let's get together and do the work that needs to be done.

Looking forward to breaking bread with you.Doria Robinson

All meeting agendas and minutes are posted here on the site in the sidebar. For more information please contact Doria Robinson, 510-778-5886. doria@urbantilth.org.